Sometimes as a journalist one thing leads to another and you
suddenly find yourself going down a dark rabbit hole that you hadn't planned to
visit. That's what happened to me recently when I was writing a piece about how
the Veterans Administration's mental health system and the military in general
were failing women in need of care following sexual assault.

I interviewed a lot of women veterans who had suffered
military sexual assault while serving their country for that piece and what I
heard wasn't pretty. Nor were the things they said about what had happened to
them when they sought help, or when they tried to tell their stories. That's
the part that led me down the rabbit hole, because the truth is retaliation is
rampant in the military against those who tell the truth about what happens to
victims of abuse.

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"It's a culture of silencing," one source who'd been warned
not to talk to the media told me. "They take away your First Amendment right to
free speech." Then he called me, twice, in a panic. "Don't use my name," he said. "I still work
for the VA." Soon afterwards I got a call from another source who asked that I
water down her comments. "My husband still gets his care at the VA," she
explained.

But don't take my word for it. In May 2015 Human Rights
Watch released a report called "US: Military Whistleblowers at Risk" in which
it detailed retaliation for reporting sexual assault. "Military service members
who report sexual assault frequently experience retaliation that goes
unpunished," the report said after its 18-month investigation in partnership
with the human rights organization Protect Our Defenders. "Despite extensive
reforms by the Defense Department to address sexual assault, the military has
done little to hold retaliators to account or provide effective remedies for
retaliation," the report said, adding that "the Military Whistleblower
Protection Act has yet to help a single service member whose career was
harmed."

Let's put a human face on this travesty. "A Sergeant told me
he would kill me if we ever went into Afghanistan because 'friendly fire
is a tragic accident that happens'," a female soldier told Human Rights
Watch. Another reported that she was
assaulted by a cook whose colleagues harassed her so much she couldn't eat in
the mess hall. She "lived off of cans of tuna" for seven months. In another case
a female Marine's name and photo were posted to a Facebook page where other
Marines could comment. "Find her, tag her, haze her, make her life a living
hell," someone wrote. Another soldier said she should be silenced "before she
lied about another rape."

Is it any wonder that one advocate I interviewed said she
advises women who come to her for help to "get out right now because you life
is on the line." She told me "it's not unusual for women to go missing" or to
have their deaths called a suicide.

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A study conducted by the Rand Corporation in 2014 revealed
that 62 percent of women who reported unwanted sexual conduct to military
authorities experienced some form of retaliation. The study also found that 35
percent of women reporting sexual assault suffered an adverse administrative
action, 32 percent suffered professional retaliation and 11 percent were
punished for infractions after reporting. It didn't count the number of women
who receive pseudo-psychiatric diagnoses like "Borderline Personality Disorder"
which is often used to damage or end a victim's career.

"These sickening stories of retaliation against survivors
should make every American angry," Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) has said. "We
keep hearing how previous reforms were going to protect victims, and make
retaliation a crime. Yet there has been zero progress on this front and this
mission is failing. Survivors will not be able to get the justice they deserve
until we change this business-as-usual climate without any real accountability
and create a professional, non-biased and independent military justice system."

Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, agrees.
"When no one is held accountable for retaliation, it creates a hostile
environment for all survivors, and sends a message to criminals that they can
act with impunity. When a survivor who reports sexual assault is 12 times more
likely to suffer retaliation than they are to see their rapist convicted, it
demonstrates the military has a long way to go to fix this problem."

After talking to so many brave women who have suffered
terribly, first by being raped and then for telling the truth about it, I
couldn't agree more. That's why I've written their stories here and elsewhere,
which has led me to wonder occasionally if I will be retaliated against in some
way. So if my column doesn't appear next month please come looking for me. Maybe
you should start with that ultimate black hole -- a military brig -- where
someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Al Capone may well be watching over
me.

Elayne Clift is a writer,lecturer, workshop leader and activist. She is senior correspondent for Women's Feature Service, columnist for the Keene (NH) Sentinel and Brattleboro (VT) Commons and a contributor to various publications internationally. (more...)